Portlaoise cleans up its litter act to meet European norms according to survey

Reporter:

Michelle Hogan

14 Jan 2019

0

Members of Portlaoise Tidy Towns at work

Portlaoise has been deemed ‘Clean to European Norms’ and jumped to 21st place in a list of clean towns in Ireland.

The town has ranked just behind Cork City Centre and ahead of Ennis in the Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) anti-litter league for 2018.

This is a huge change in a short time for Portlaoise which was in 41st place in 2013.

The report by IBAL following the survey has stated that there were no ‘seriously littered’ areas in the town.

“Portlaoise has consolidated its standing as a clean town after some years of struggle.

“Well over half of the sites surveyed got the top litter grade. Some of the very good top ranking sites surveyed in Portlaoise included the Main Street, the R445 Approach Road and Portlaoise Train Station (Exterior) – they didn’t just score well with regard to litter but also the presentation and maintenance was very good.

“There were no seriously littered sites in the town.”

Detailed reports on specific areas highlighted the good points and also areas for improvement in terms of litter around the town.

“The Main Street was a good one with regards to litter, just occasional cigarette butts, chewing gum and sweet papers. Paving, bollards, street signage and bins were in very good condition.

“Abandoned building - Ex prison Officers Club. The windows of the first floor were boarded up and the property has a ‘For Sale’ sign on the railings. The main items of litter included cigarette related litter, plastic bags, fast-food items and sweet papers.

Care needs to be taken to ensure that this site doesn’t deteriorate further with regards to litter.

“Portlaoise Train Station – Exterior Entrance. This lovely ‘olde’ style station presented well, with parking to the front in good order. There was plenty of signage relating to parking / CCTV etc. All was in good order with regard to litter.

“Pepper’s Lane. This narrow pedestrianised laneway has had a cleanup but graffiti was still very much a feature at one end, particularly on the wall with the green door/grill. There was a virtual absence of litter to be seen.”

Fermoy came out on top of the 2018 litter rankings with Athlone in second place and Killarney third.

If you have a story or want to send a photo or video to us please contact the Derry Now editorial team on 028 7129 6600 for Derry City stories Or 028 7774 3970 for County Derry stories. Or you can email editor@derrynews.net or editor@derrypost.com at any time.

If you wish, you can contact us using any of the methods below: Leinster Express,107 Lower Main Street,LaoisEmail: editor@leinsterexpress.ieTelephone: 057 8621666

This website and its associated newspaper are full participating members of the Press Council of Ireland and supports the Office of the Press Ombudsman. This scheme in addition to defending the freedom of the press, offers readers a quick, fair and free method of dealing with complaints that they may have in relation to articles that appear on our pages. To contact the Office of the Press Ombudsman go to www.pressombudsman.ie or www.presscouncil.ie Leinster Express provides news, events and sport features from the Laois area. For the best up to date information relating to Laois and the surrounding areas visit us at Leinster Express regularly or bookmark this page.